King Crimson co-founder, drummer and percussionist Michael Giles has released his first set of recordings for 25 years, with Shadows/Solo, a double CD collection of unheard recordings. You can watch a short teaser video below.
Commenting that "the release feels less like looking back and more like completing a circle," Giles' first album since 2001's Progress brings together a substantial body of previously unheard recordings spanning several decades.
Some of the recordings reach back many years, others are much more recent, yet all share a common thread. Rather than leaving them unfinished or unheard, Giles felt the time had come to gather them together.
The new release also forms part of a broader archival series, which will include Giles & Pert and Giles & Muir, documenting collaborative studio sessions recorded at Giles' studio in Dorset circa 1982, one with Morris Pert, the other with Jamie Muir, himself a future King Crimson drummer from 1972-3. Later in the year, the project will be followed by a five-CD box set presenting Giles' complete studio recordings.
Giles originally featured on the first two King Crimson albums, 1969's In The Court Of The Crimson King and 1970's In The Wake Of Poseidon. Previously, he'd been in Giles, Giles & Fripp and released McDonald Giles with the late Ian McDonald in 1970, following their departure from Crimson.
He would later work with Anthony Phillips, Kevin Ayers, Greg Lake, Bryan Ferry, The Penguin Cafe Orchestra and more. In In 2002, he co-founded the 21st Century Schizoid Band, a group composed of former King Crimson musicians, as well as his then son-in-law, Jakko Jakszyk, who would later join King Crimson himself.
